Georgia Institute of Technology

College of Architecture Library

Atlanta, GA

LAS was contracted to design the space for the Georgia Tech College of Architecture (CoA) administrative offices while restoring the original architectural character of the P.M. Heffernan designed library.

In 1952 the CoA building was one of the first modern buildings to be designed and built on the Georgia Tech campus by P.M. Heffernan and references the important modernist Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany.

The library was designed as a very transparent space on what was fondly known as the “bridge” between the studio on one side and gallery and public spaces on the other. In the early 1980s a new architecture library opened in an adjacent new architecture building to accommodate the growth of the program. The 1952 library was converted into a maze of research spaces and insensitively expanded into the adjacent hallway for a conference room and reception area.

The LAS design removed the non-original additions and restored the design intent of the original Library, an open reading room with book shelving on one long wall and pinup cork wall on the opposite wall. Ceiling heights were reclaimed and the original lighting pattern replicated. Glass was used between new partitions and the ceiling and walls to allow one to perceive the volume of the original library, The placement of walls was deliberate in forming private spaces. Original finishes were restored or, where no longer available, referenced with contemporary materials. The program for use included four private offices, a multipurpose classroom for 60, open work stations for four staff members and informal meeting space.